American panel show, The View, was thrown into chaos on Friday when two of the co-hosts discovered they had tested positive for COVID-19 during the filming of the show.
‘Hot Topics’, a segment on The View, where the hosts share their thoughts and opinions on the latest political and pop culture news, became an awkward Q & A with the audience.
To add another level of drama to the event, the show was just about to wrap up Hot Topics, to interview Vice President Kamala Harris, who was set to appear in the studio, alongside the ladies.
However, everything came to a stop, when Navarro and Hostin were both pulled off set. To add to the stakes, the show is also filmed in front of a live audience, so to a certain extent, the show had to go on. The remaining hosts, Joy Behar and Sara Haines were left to salvage the show and interestingly were not pulled off to be tested again.
The View is used to a bit of drama, Megan Mccain a co-host last season, was often controversial and the show is constantly battling rumours the co-hosts do not get along. Both Behar and Haines looked visibly uncomfortable when their co-hosts were pulled from set.
Despite Navarro and Hostin’s departure, the audience was not informed about what was going on.
Behar asked a producer if she should cut to Harris, only for one producer to yell, “Yes” and another to say, “No.”
Finally, after a commercial break, Behar explained to a confused audience what was actually going on.
Behar said: “Sunny and Ana both apparently tested positive for Covid. No matter how hard we try, these things happen, they probably have a breakthrough case, and they’ll be OK, I’m sure because they’re both vaccinated up the wazoo.”
Behar and Haines tried to fill in time by letting audience members ask them questions. Of course, the last-minute segment didn’t exactly go seamlessly. It included Behar not being able to hear questions and audience members having to shout because they could not share a microphone around, because of COVID-10 health regulations.
Eventually, Harris’s segment did happen, but via video link.
Behar said: “I hope that you’re in a safe spot right now. We did everything we could to make sure that you were safe because we value you so much,” Behar told Harris at the start of their interview.
The Vice President said: “Thank you, Joy, and to everyone. Listen, Sunny and Ana are strong women and I know they’re fine, but it really also does speak to the fact that they’re vaccinated and vaccines really do make all the difference.”
Navarro took to Instagram the next day to explain she had experienced a ‘false positive’ and had taken three further tests that all came back negative. Hostin has yet to comment on the incident, but it is assumed her test was also a false positive.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUQdQhlJFMG/
However, the drama that ensued was very, very real.